Israeli PM reject talks for broad gov't hit dead end

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Monday the claim that the coalition talks hit a dead end.

He made the remarks at the Knesset or the parliament, where his Likud party is holding a faction meeting.

Netanyahu told reporters at the meeting the talks with Yisrael Beytenu party have not collapsed, and the process takes time.

"Nothing is collapsing, it takes time... my goal is a broad government," he added.

Earlier in the day, Israeli media outlets reported that negotiations between Netanyahu's Likud party and Yisrael Beytenu party of hawkish lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman hit a snag over the latter's request to increase pensions only for migrants from the former Soviet Union.

Lieberman said that negotiators from his party hit "an impasse" with the treasury over the demand of better pension terms for former Soviet Union migrants.

"Our conditions for entering the coalition were known in advance," Lieberman said in a statement to the press on Monday. "I am waiting for a good offer. All we have received thus far has not been acceptable to us," he added.

The lawmaker said the party is making an "honest effort" to solve the disagreement, yet said that "we can't move forward if the will isn't there on the other side," referring to the treasury's stance.

Around 1.6 million migrants from the former Soviet Union reached Israel between 1989 and 2006, according to official figures. Lieberman himself and many members of his constituency are former Soviet migrants.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon rejected the request as it discriminates other populations, the Ha'aretz daily reported.

Netanyahu and Lieberman met last week and started negotiating on the latter's entrance into the former's coalition, in order to increase Netanyahu's current thing 61-59 lead over the opposition in the 120-seat parliament.

The Israeli leader agreed to Lieberman's request to be appointed as defense minister instead of Likud member Moshe Ya'alon, who resigned from his post and the Knesset on Friday.

Lieberman also demanded, but had since withdrawn the demand, to apply death penalties to Palestinian terrorists. He also said on Monday he had compromised on matters of "religion and state" as a good will gesture.

Another potential problem to the talks emerged on Monday from the Jewish Home party and its leader, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who asked Netanyahu to make changes to the security-diplomatic cabinet as a condition for approving Lieberman's addition to the government.

The Ha'aretz daily reported Bennett urged the changes following criticism on the cabinet's conduct during the last military campaign in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014, Operation Protective Edge, including appointing a designated military attaché to the cabinet.

Negotiations between Netanyahu and Lieberman came after a week of intensive contacts between Netanyahu and the Zionist Union list, made out of the center-left Labor and Hatnua parties, led by opposition chief Isaac Herzog.

Netanyahu suggested on Sunday that talks between the parties had not yet ended, despite talks with Lieberman, but Herzog on Monday wrote on his Twitter page that the "door is closed" on any prospect of the Zionist Union entering the government, as Netanyahu is "being held hostage by extremists." Endit